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Ghana's Digital Dilemma
Some random reader writes: "Here is a fascinating Technology Review article about information technology in the West African nation of Ghana. It's an illustration of how new technology relies on, and can be hampered by, old technology. It's also a testament to the ingenuity of the people there who are working to maintain and update the country's IT infrastructure. These folks are working with a terrible phone system and frequent power outages, but they still manage to succeed."
If you have tech skills, four months to kill and are looking to make an appreciable impact in the future of a nation, check it out.
correct links
Freeplay
and while the worldspace link is correct, we actually partner with the Worldspace Foundation, not the corporation
Worldspace Foundation
It is a volunteer driven organisation where you help them close the "digital divide" gap.
Dude,
I've been to Ghana (my parents live there) and lived in Kenya for most of my life... UPSs are expensive! So are generators... this is a little inconvenient, and the damage to computers probably is minimal. Hey, if Win95 (that's what they mostly run there, on Pentium 133's) refuses to start up, just reinstall windows... Easy does it.
The owner is pretty lucky to have a generator. Most Internet cafes don't. He will not have the funds to buy UPSses.
Cheers!
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
Not quite true. I was working in Ghana from 1995 to 1998 putting science equipment and Win 3.1 486 machines into schools to provide local science resource centres for the Ministry of Education and there was public internet access (albeit mostly for ex-pats) at a German-owned bar called Aquarius in Accra.
By 1998 there were several internet cafes in Ghana including ones in Navrongo and Tamale in the much poorer north of the country.
I had a dial-up account (my first) with Africaonline which was pretty much only usable for email.
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
Ghana's electricity problems stem from the U.S. bastard baby, the World Bank. The World Bank thought it would be brilliant to build dams in Ghana for hydropower, creating Akosombo Dam and Lake Volta, which is a fantastic breeding pool for mosquitos carrying malaria and yellow fever. Ghana's northern half is in the Sahara Desert!! The only thing for sure in Ghana is sunshine, so if it was you or me there, we would have been in there installing solar power everywhere. The libraries had older DOS computers for the most part, but those old workhorses are better adept at handling the unexpected power outages (and planned ones, when the dam runs out of water) than my new G4 would be. The Geekcorps has been in Ghana for a while, so clearly they see potential.
Go there and find out for yourself what an amazing place Ghana is, delicious food, unbelievably friendly people. I was there during the biggest drought/electricity crisis in several years, and they just had rotating blackouts no different than my native CA did a year ago. Water had to be trucked in to be spread around, but you wouldn't believe how I could make a bucket of water last when I learned from my friends there. Ghanaians aren't all living in horrendous poverty. They do know how to make do with less than Americans, and really, it's not a reflection of them but of our excess. And they've got more culture than in all our bio-tech labs combined.
This is really funny. I am reading slashdot (have been reading it for years and boom! an article about Ghana.
...
I am an IT Professional living and working in Ghana and I know almost everyone mentioned in the article - your man, G Zachary is way off. He got the wrong sources. Tried to make a good story but got the wrong sources.
The Somuah guy is not reviewing the national IT policy. He is sitting on it. This document was created almost a year ago!!! How do I know ? I helped draft it.
The guy who said that there were only 50 coders in Ghana who could work without supervision couldn't recognize a coder even if it bit him on the arse and said "C?"
But seriously, there are a lot of opportunites in IT here and there are a hell of a lot of good people from all walks of life who are making a difference, ignoring negative perceptions and bad press.
We have world class C++ and Java coders, basically all the ISPs are using Linux somewhere behind the scenes. Some of the Open Source projects that you see mentioned on slashdot and others that you don't see mentioned get contributions from programmers in Ghana.
We also have some Indian companies coming in to train people and they just teach half-baked Microsoft stuff. I have to reject about five of them each month when they come looking for a job.
Why ? The damn training outfit thinks we are so far behind that they produce low quality graduates who *keep* us from going forward.
This is the technology we import. Another problem is with donor agencies. Big contracts are all awarded to external firms yet there are local people who can do a better job. You have geekcorps coming in, feeling good - like they are helping the poor Africans. I never yet met the geekcorp guy or gal who could kick *my* ass on technology. And I've worked with some of their best people
Someone here posted that their friends were helping Ghana's parliament because they designed a web site. Hell no!! There are Ghanaians who could do way better than what was done there. If geekcorps is coming in, then they better bring some high level expertise else we are wasting each other's time.
There is a really interesting comment from sun2day who wrote about Tropical Tolerance and called the article an attempt to make Africa look like a black hole. That was the most realistic post I saw on this topic.